In this episode, we discuss cannabis legalization, and what that means for college students.
Marissa: Welcome to the Last Call Podcast. My name is Marissa Whitaker and I'm the prevention educator at SUNY Courtland.
Sarah: My name is Sarah McGowan. I'm the assistant Director of Student Health and Wellness at Anadaga Community College. Our jobs are to educate students about potential risks associated with substance use.
Marissa: We approach substance use from a neutral stance, and our episodes are rooted in public health with a focus on science and harm reduction.
Sarah: So today we are going to be doing a shallow dive and an update into the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act that went into effect in New York State on March 31 of 2021. So just to kind of simplify it, because the actual legislation is super long and wordy, we wanted to make sure that everyone kind of understood what it meant and kind of what it means for college students or anyone who is choosing to consume cannabis. So, a simplified version anyone over the age of 21 can possess up to 3oz of flour or 24 grams of concentrates, and cultivating or growing is not legally permitted yet in New York. So until legalized market has been up and running for 18 months, at that time, individuals will be allowed to grow six plants at home, with a max of twelve plants per household. Morris I think one of the most important parts of the MRT is that it aims to correct social injustices that have happened historically, and what they're ultimately trying to do is give licenses for dispensaries or cultivators to people who have previous cannabis related conviction.
Marissa: Yeah, that's a really great point. It goes beyond, oh, I can just smoke weed now. There are a lot of social justice matters that have been taken into account with this, and I think New York is making a lot of steps that maybe some other states haven't through legalization. Where can someone consume cannabis if they want to use it?
Sarah: Absolutely. So a private residence. It's important as a college student, though, to know that if you are renting, your landlord must permit you. So if you live in a smoke free housing, that doesn't automatically mean that because it's legal in New York that you can smoke there. Public places where smoking cigarettes is allowed and not prohibited by law. So this can be really tricky because some places are considered public and some are not. So, like state parks, other places where smoking is prohibited by law, it's important to know that before you lit up a joint anywhere you want. And going along with that, just because you can, doesn't necessarily mean that you should. So if you're at a large scale event where you're not sure who might be there, it's important to kind of think about what might that look like for you and what impacts could that potentially have on your future. If you're letting up a joint outside of a concert and you run into your college professor or you run into your boss, and they see a smoking leave, what implications does that have? So just because you can doesn't mean that you should. Merrill kind of go opposite of that. Where can't cannabis be consumed?
Marissa: I know I get to be the fun sucker of this conversation. So places where you cannot consume cannabis, just as a heads up. So you mentioned the private residence where you can use it. Your residence hall is not a private residence, even though you pay to reside here. Think of your landlord as your hall director. And they don't allow weed, so can't be smoking in your residence hall. You also can't smoke outside of school, so you must be 100ft from a school. So we're talking elementary, high schools. You also can't smoke in the workplace. You can't drink when you're at work, so you can't be smoking weed either. You also can't smoke in a car or in city or public parks or where there's public transportation. Another place where you can't smoke cannabis anywhere on a SUNY campus, and that even includes your own vehicle if it's on a sunny campus. So you can't park in a parking lot and spark up. There's no parking spark here. So I've been asked by a lot of college students, well, cannabis is legal, why can't I use it on campus? And I think that's a really fair and a good question. We have an answer for that. So this is a sunny policy. This isn't just Sony Cortland. This isn't just OCC. This is Sunny wide part of the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act. So if you live in a state where cannabis is legal, that doesn't really matter. You still can't consume, use or possess cannabis on a college campus. And that's because cannabis is federally illegal. That's why these laws are in place. So a campus could actually lose their federal funding if they're encouraging or condoning drug use on any college campus.
Sarah: It's really interesting too Mariss, because even if you're prescribed medical cannabis, colleges still cannot allow you to use that on your campus. So if you're prescribed cannabis for a medical reason, check in with your office of accessibility resources on that, because if you're on campus, you are not allowed to use that product on campus.
Marissa: So we just talked about places where you can and can't use cannabis, and Sarah did a really good job of talking about some of the perceptions about cannabis. Let's talk for a really quick second about just some very brief cannabis etiquette. Like we said before, the laws have changed, but perceptions on cannabis are a bit slower to change. Like she said, you never know who's going to see you smoking a blunt. Maybe your roommate doesn't want to smell your sweatshirt when you come back from hotboxing a car. Being courteous about cannabis use is a good step to change what some of the negative stereotypes that people hold about cannabis users.
Sarah: Also, Marissa, the clean indoor air act limits where you can smoke. So just like it does with cigarettes, you can't smoke a cigarette in an airport, just like you can't use weed in an airport. So be courteous. Not everyone consumes or uses cannabis. I think we have a huge problem right now with vaping. So with a vape pen, you can whip out that vape pen and vape just about anywhere. But again, just because you can doesn't mean that you should. So please be courteous. If you do use maris, I have a question for you. So something that I'm seeing everywhere. Now that cannabis is legal, is Delta Eight. Can you kind of tell us a little bit more about what is Delta Eight?
Marissa: Yeah, just what you said in the beginning. This is going to be a shallow dive into Delta Eight. And if you're really interested in this stuff, we cover it extensively in our Weed 101 episode. So if you scroll down on our list, you can find that there. And it's talked about to a larger extent. So similar to Delta Nine THC, which is the cannabis, that's what people are smoking, similar to Delta Nine, delta Eight binds to the CB one receptors, but it has a bit of a weaker attachment, hence some of the more mild psychoactive effects compared to Delta Nine THC. And I know not everyone is here to nerd out over the science, but if you are, the difference for the Delta Eight and Delta Nine is where the double bond lies on the carbon atom. A lot of people refer to this as diet weed. Here's where things can get a little bit hazy with the legalization, depending on how it's derived. So legally, Delta Eight is legally hemp, but chemically it's THC. So this is where states where cannabis is illegal. A lot of places are trying to sell it as a hemp product, and that's how they're getting around that with a legal loophole. Delta Eight isn't inherently more dangerous than Delta Nine, but because it's not regulated, that's where that synthetic variability can be quite dangerous. Delta Eight is a cannabinoid, but it's not found in significant amounts, so it's often manufactured from CBD. Again, that's where it's that legally hemp. But the risk that I think is that you're getting an unregulated, untested and frankly, a synthetic product, and that's where things can go awry.
Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. Morris I always tell the people that I work with and any substance that you don't know where it came from, you're always risking that there could be a negative outcome with that. Does your drug dealer have your best interest in mind or are they just there to kind of collect your money?
Marissa: Right. And because it's sold legally, do you really trust the guy at the local vape shop? Do you think that they're doing any third party testing for heavy metals? Probably not.
Sarah: Yes. Please do not use Delta Eight that you get at a gas station.
Marissa: So along with Delta Eight trending, I think that how cannabis products are being marketed is also trending a lot in the news lately. So Sarah, tell us a little bit about the research that you've found on this.
Sarah: There are some proposed regulations that are out for comment that are going to specifically control how cannabis products can be marketed in dispensaries to try and avoid youth based marketing. So I'm going to tell you a few of the guidelines, Martha, which I think are really interesting, but it's smart of New York to do this because I think a lot of the other states that have legalized have had issues with things like this. So some of the things that New York has said that you are not able to put on cannabis product packaging are cartoons. You can't use Bubble Laker character font, you can't use neon or bright colors. You can't have anything that's similar in packaging to food, candy or drinks that are already available. So one thing I kind of thought of was you can't have Pop Tarts but market them as pot hearts. So you can't have products that look or appear to be similar to another product that's already on the market, because kids like candy or kids consume these other cereal products or whatever else. You can kind of think of soda or things like that. So I thought that was smart. You can't have the word candy in any form in cannabis product marketing. You can't have character or toy references or phrases that could be appealing to those under 21. So how they are going to determine that will be left to see. But I thought that was interesting as well. And also in marketing you can't use images of those to appear to be under 21. So specifically they don't want to market cannabis use to people underage. So, really interesting. There are also guidelines on people who have dispensers have to also have a place where they're getting their products lab tested, so that's a good thing, so that you know truly what's in the cannabis products that you're consuming. There are also guidelines to ensure that cannabis products are in child resistant packaging and how they define that mariss is difficult for children under five to open, but not difficult for adults to use properly. But one of the positive, and again, I think all these marketing guidelines are very positive, but one of the other positive things that I kind of took out of these legislations where you can't own or run a dispensary without having a lab license, so that means, you'll know, that what you're getting has actually been lab tested, hopefully. And the packaging should represent the milligrams of CBD and or THC that's in a product, which is always good to know. And then the last thing is that on edibles there's going to be language that effects could be delayed by four more hours. So I thought that was really interesting. Not that people always follow the packaging or read closely on products that they consume, but I thought that was really great because I know that that's been something that we've seen kind of trends on, is people consuming edibles in the incorrect way.
Marissa: I like that you mentioned that Dispensaries must have a lab license. And I think as we're moving forward on a lot of this, that's going to be a really good litmus test to see if this is a reputable product. Because if there's not that sticker or that QR code to scan to get those third party results, that could be indicative that it's a synthetic product or that it was grown from a non regulated cultivator. So there's a lot of steps in the right direction with how New York is going about legalizing.
Sarah: I agree. And also it's important to know that kind of in the legislation, all the legislation that has come out, they have kind of said that New York can impose new rules or regulations at any time. So all these things are kind of they could change. Just think about kind of what you're choosing to consume when people are able to consume legalized products, kind of what that will look like eventually.
Marissa: So that wraps up this episode. We hope that you were able to take away a couple of the basics from cannabis legalization and what some of the current trends are. Stay tuned for our episode next week. Bye.